Various types of coin wrappers are well known in the art and have been used for many years to facilitate the handling and storage of coins. Typically, such wrappers are made of a flexible substrate which encloses a stacked roll of coins all having the same valuation. The coin wrappers are typically designed to accomodate a convenient unit of value, for example $5 or $25 worth of coins.
A useful coin wrapper must be flexible enough to conform to the diameter of a roll of coins. It must be strong enough to maintain the coins in a stacked roll without splitting, tearing, or otherwise releasing the coins when repeatedly and sometimes roughly handled. However, the useful coin wrapper must also quickly and easily release the coins when needed. It is also desirable that a coin wrapper be adapted for machine rolling of coins, to eliminate the need for tedious hand rolling.
Coin wrappers are used in volume by almost all places of trade handling cash. Financial institutions utilize an enormous quantity of coin wrappers. They are also routinely used by restaurants, service stations, stores, and the like, where it is common to see an employee unwrapping a roll of coins to provide additional change for the cash register.
A variety of coin wrappers have been used in the past or are currenty in use. Paper tubes are very common. Typically, the paper tubes are folded or crimped over the ends of the coin roll to hold the coins in place. Various means are used to remove the coins from such a wrapper. Generally, when the wrapper has folded ends, the ends must be unfolded and the roll manipulated or shaken to dislodge the coins. Removing coins in this way can be time consuming.
Where the ends are crimped, frequently a pull tab is provided somewhere along the length of the wrapper, which when pulled will tear the wrapper away from the coins. However, this has proven unsatisfactory because in many cases the paper does not tear uniformly but instead shreds or breaks off, making the unrolling process more difficult. It also happens that sometimes during handling of the coin rolls, inadvertently the tab is pulled causing the wrapper to tear and coins to spill out. To prevent this, instead of a tab some coin wrappers provide a cut-out or recessed area along a diagonal or lengthwise seam, so that a person can start tearing the wrapper at that point. However, it is generally quite difficult to begin tearing the paper from a cut out area in the absence of long fingernails or other suitable implement. Further, the problems of uneven tearing and shredding still occur.
Another commonly used coin wrapper is a paper wrapper designed to split open when the roll is rapped sharply against a hard surface. Generally the employee or clerk wll strike this wrapper against the cash register to open it. However, the registers in use today are frequently electronic digital instruments having circuitry and a memory system which easily can be damaged by a jolt or strike. Consequently, it is highly undesirable that coin rolls be struck against these registers, and in fact some institutions have posted notices to this effect on their registers.
A more recent development is the clear plastic tube sealed around a roll of coins. This wrapper is known as a "fry tube". It is believed that this wrapper is heat-shrunk around the roll to maintain the coins in the stacked position. It has proven very difficult to remove the coins from the fry tube wrapper. It is not uncommon for the operator of a cash register to have a razor blade on hand to slit open the fry tubes. The presence and use of a razor blade presents obvious dangers and use of the blade can be overly time consuming when customers are waiting.
Thus, substantial need exists for a coin wrapper which will quickly and easily release the coins without cutting, striking, or awkward tearing.